Just occasionally I am sent something that knocks off my socks. This is one of those times.

The Botanical Treasury is stunning, and would make a wonderful gift for someone who is interested in art, gardening, or just something on a different level to normal Christmas presents.

(or keep it for yourself and give them chocs. Yes, a much better idea.)

The Botanical Treasury celebrates 40 of the World’s most fascinating plants through rare prints and classic texts.

It contains 40 frameable prints, and though it costs £35 it is cheap at the price.

Within the hard cover are some of the great archival treasures of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The illustrations are breathtaking and the facsimile documents are fascinating.

Experts at Kew have chosen the collection, a collection including the passionflower, and the peony and even includes the Banksia, the Australian plant named after Sir Joseph Banks who travelled with James Cook on his first voyage of discovery.

This particularly moved me, because I have seen Banksia every time I have been in Australia researching a book and the illustration is superb.

Read the classic texts, such as Gerard’s herbal or The Histoirie of Plants 1597 and The Gardener’s Dictionary of 1731.

The Botanical Treasury: Price £35.00

Carlton Books have a great selection of other books, all of which cause me to salivate – but not on the books, of course.

Try this: for both the connoisseur and the newcomer, The Treasures of Champagne by Tom Bruce-Gardyne, celebrates this remarkable liquid by exploring how champagne has become so deeply embedded in the world’s consciousness.

The celebration of bubbly proves, once and for all, that the world would be a poorer place without champagne, as indeed would Christmas.

The Treasures of Champagne Price £ 40.00

Then there is TANKS – 100 years of armoured warfare  by The Tank Museum and Robin Cross

Price £26.00

And on, and on. Have a look at their website and treat yourself, or if you’re noble, someone else.

www.carltonbooks.co.uk to see the range.

As a happily retired woman I no longer need to leap out of bed shouting at the alarm clock, stumbling around in the dark wondering how on earth it can still feel like the middle of the night and wishing I could go back to bed. Oh those long ago days when each night my head hit the pillow and I slept all night. Now my brain likes to keep my best ideas until the moment I close my eyes. There they are, the people in my book dancing about in my mind’s eye acting out their story.   Why on earth I get my creative inspiration at the most inappropriate times is beyond me.

Many moons ago I studied the art of meditation and decided that a good doze of mindfulness was necessary for a good start to the day.   Today I decided to give this another try. This was going to be the new me, all calm, centred and brimming with creativity. The window cleaner was the first to disturb me by clattering his ladders against my bedroom window. As I lie with the blinds open so I can look at the sky at night, which I love, I leapt out of bed, tripped over the book lying on the floor and banged my knee on the bed before doing a rugby dive to grab the cord and pull the blinds down. Can’t be traumatising my window cleaner this early in the day poor man.

In the morning I like to sit and have a cuppa and chat with my husband over breakfast whilst he watches the news. I say chat, I talk, and he pretends to listen. Today, was going to be an excellent day I told him, regardless of my painful start.

My favourite day is one spent with my family. They never fail to encourage me and their support, belief and love make my world a wonderful place to be. Still there is not a day goes by when I don’t wonder how I became a published writer and have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming. I was loved beyond measure growing up and my mother was one of the kindest and most beautiful souls yet I was never told that dreams came true or to believe in myself. Be thankful for what we have she would say smiling and I always was.

Today, the second person to disturb my morning calm was the postman knocking at my door. I opened the parcel and there it was. My second book, hot off the press. It is so hard to describe the feeling of actually holding the first copy in your hands. I felt tearful as my husband came over and hugged me then rang the family to spread the news. We were all going to celebrate together tonight.

Well, my day started with meditation and ended with a good few glasses of wine. Sounds like a good day all round to me.

A Christmas Angel at the Ragdoll Orphanage – Suzanne Lambert pb £6.99

Here at Frost we’re having a bit of a bookfest, as the books pour in for review. We’re glad we have Milly Adams, author of Sisters at War on the team. She’s been catching up on her reading and has some good ‘uns for us.

 The Reykjavic Assignment by Adam Lebor is an international thriller from renowned political journalist Ada Lebor. He takes us behind the corridors of power and let’s face it, those corridors are looking totally fascinating now.

UN covert negotiator Yeael Azoulay has been sent to Reykjavik to broker a secret meeting between US President Freshwater and the Iranian President. Though both parties want the violence to stop there are others, enemies, but who, pulling the strings?

Are they people who are protecting their profits?

I love this kind of writing. Sharp, evocative, rhythmic, visual, terrifying. Buy it, read it, give it.

Adam LeBor lives in Budapest and writes for several international newspapers, as well as Hitler’s Secret Bankers. Margaret Graham said some had kept her awake recently. Perhaps this will be the same for you.

Hof Z hb £18.00

Find Her   by Lisa Gardner

I agree with a friend of mine who couldn’t put this down. Hardly surprising as Gardner is a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. And is a master of the psychological suspense novel.

There are a lot of these about these days, but this is one of the best. Taut writing, tight plotting, a story to turn your  hair grey. Flora Dane survived her hell of imprisonment locked for more than a year in a pine box by a madman. She has only one goal: to develop all the skills necessary to make sure she’s never caught again. But then another girl goes missing. The female detective thinks Flora could be the key to finding her. But Flora has no intention of following Detective Warren rules. I wouldn’t read it last thing at night, or you’ll never put it down,

Headline. Pb £7.99

The Longest Winter by Kevin Sullivan

This debut novel is a portrait of a city and its people in a moment of enormous suffering. Margaret Graham was in Bosnia and Croatia soon after ‘peace’ was brokered researching a novel. Desolation of mind, people and places was the only word she could think of to describe it, but then realised there was hope too . Sullivan brings this sense into our sitting rooms as he intertwines three life stories all of which seem to be on the path for redemption. Terry is a British doctor on a mission to rescue a sick child, Brad an American journalist trying to save his reputation following the disasters of his last posting. And in Milena, we have a young woman from Eastern Bosnia who is seeking refuge from betrayal amid the devastation of besieged Sarajevo.

This was a brave project for a debut novelist, but he’s pulled it off, driven I suspect by an inner passion. Sullivan was wounded in a landmine explosion in early 1993 as he covered the siege of Sarajevo and the war in Bosnia. It was as he recovered that he wrote the first draft of The Longest Winter.

Read it.

The Longest Winter   pb Twenty7. £7.99

By Alex Bannard, Thailand correspondent.

A good friend recommended doing the elephants in Chang Rai…at the Anatalaya. So off the Bannard family went.

After breakfasting watching the mist on the surrounding mountains clear, we spent our first full day there out on a bike ride around Chang Rai. Our guide took us around the surrounding countryside, showing us water lilies which apparently taste ‘a bit softer and not very like morning glory’, so I’m guessing not that good, then. We saw fields of rice paddies and pineapples and forests of rubber trees with the bark pulled down to encourage the latex to drop into containers tied into the trunk.

Then we went to the white temple, Wat Rong Khun, which was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a famous Thai artist. It is spectacular and so different to any temple I have seen yet. Quite macabreand yet strangely entertaining there are skulls hanging from trees, a moat of hands reaching up from’hell’ in as a bridge escorts you over them away from temptation towards redemption in the safe confines of the temple.

We also wrote out wishes on silver leaves to be hung from a nearby tree. The kids love doing things like this and diligently scrolled their wishes based upon a loving kindness meditation I’ve been teaching them.

We cycled further to a natural cave full of bats and Buddhas, a total of 28km expertly completed by my little Tour de Chang Rai-ers. I loved the ride. Next stop the elephant ride. Whilst I am delighted these magnificent creatures have a way to earn money for their mahoots without begging on the streets, I am all too painfully aware of the ethical implications. Elephant’s spines are not designed or strong enough to carry heavy loads of tourists and these beautiful creatures are often subjected to barbaric training and living conditions.

It is extremely distressing to see them chained to a post but a good life lesson for the kids none the less and prompted discussions regarding animal welfare. The children enjoyed feeding them baby bananas, especially to one elephant who ‘squealed’ her delighted and a gentle more please.

Obviously the day ended with the ubiquitous ride down the river in a long tail boat. It was a great start to the trip and we were rewarded with well-deserved beers on our return to the hotel. I absolutely recommend the bike tour as a way to see Chang Rai. Elephant experiences at your discretion.

The following day, started in the mist and rain at the tea plantation. Acres of rolling hills and green, green leaves. The smell of tea wafted from the ‘wilting room’ where millions of leaves are left to dry out.

Onto Doi Tong for a tour of the King Mother’s chalet in the mountains. A wonderful take on the blending of Swiss and Thai architecture as we toured this humble abode and heard tales of how well regarded she was as she restored Doi Tong and the surrounding area from a barren opium wasteland capable only of supporting drug trafficking, into the lush landscape which now supports local agriculturists, horticulturists and their families.

On our final day we decided to visit the Black House, Baandam a museum celebrating the work of local artist Thawan Duchanee. This unusual collection of dark teak wood houses in a village on the out skirts of Chang Rai is as fascinating as it is weird. Lots of houses full of skeletons, crocodile and snake skins, various furs, furniture made from buffalo horns and the occasional onion shaped concrete monstrosity filled with circles of giant shells. Utterly fascinating and completely bonkers.

The trip drew to a close with a visit to Wat Phra Kaeo, where in 1434 a bolt of lightening cracked the old Chedi to reveal the original Emerald Buddha which now resides in a temple in grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok after touring a variety of cities in the north of Thailand and southern Laos. A fake emerald Buddha rests in this Wat, well it is Thailand: fake or original it’s all the same, or as they say guaranteed original fake. A local monk thought my son in his orange t-shirt had his eyes on a stint in the monastery and I relished the buzz and sense of community in this very real temple, as novice monks gathered in small groups and the real deal got on with all things divine.

So luxurious elephant experiences or not, Chang Rai is worth a trip, the scenery alone is stunning but the randomness of unusual temples, the lushness of the tea plantations and some unexpected attractions is so alluring too.